An LA Times blog takes an amusing approach to Barton Gellman’s book on Vice President Cheney, noting that the Washington Post has been “shamelessly flakking excerpts from the book on page one of its newspaper. But some portions are still embargoed.” They go on to reproduce an anecdote in the book in which Cheney has turned down President Bush on a request to go spearhead relief efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: “I asked Dick if he’d be interested in spearheading this,” Bush announced. “Let’s just say I didn’t get the most positive response.” Bush nodded ironically toward the […]
Embargoed
Spears Book Is the Embargo to Break
You didn’t see it on most of the fall preview round-ups, but the press has ample space for anything Spears and the AP has gotten a copy of Lynne Spears’ book THROUGH THE STORM well in advance of the September 16 laydown: Spears presents herself as a loving, selfless (she gave up her job as a school teacher for her daughter’s sake) but increasingly powerless parent. After the jolting, but pleasant surprise of Britney Spears’ debut smash, … Baby One More Time, Lynne Spears says she felt she was losing control when a 1999 Rolling Stone magazine story featured a […]
Woodward: Bush Still in Denial
This time it’s Fox News that broke the embargo on the new Bob Woodward book. Their report doesn’t carry a lot of big revelations, though they note President Bush did sit with Woodward for two interviews for the new book, THE WAR WITHIN. They say Woodward is “less critical” of the president this time, though he still writes: “President Bush has rarely leveled with the public to explain what he was doing and what should be expected. He did not seek sacrifice from most of the country when he had the chance. He did not even mobilize his own party. […]
More Readings
Crain’s NY reports that director of the film version of The Secret Drew Heriot has added Simon & Schuster to his long-running legal battle over copyright ownership and proceeds from the bestselling book. He alleges that the publisher’s license “violates [his] rights as a joint-owner,” and “is seeking undisclosed monetary damages, as well as a court order that Manhattan-based Simon & Schuster reveal how much money its made in sales from the title, a figure his lawyers put at $300 million.”Crain’s Journalists hate it when book publishers try to manipulate and control the news with embargoed books since it cuts […]
Suskind Book Says White House Ordered Forgery
Ron SUskind’s just-released THE WAY OF THE WORLD charges that the White House instructed the CIA to “forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein,” Politico reports, “designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.” The book says: “The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001,” Suskind writes. “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq – thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between […]